The Botswana authorities are battling to contain the outbreak of a rare disease known as mass hysteria that has reportedly affected scores of students of Lempu Junior Secondary School, about 191km from the capital Gaborone.
According to the authorities, about 67 students have exhibited signs of the disease since the beginning of this year.
Local media reported that in March 2019, about 200 students from Lempu School showed signs of the rare disease, which was diagnosed as mass hysteria and this led to the temporary closure of the school.
The Assistant Minister of Basic Education, Nnaniki Makwinja, was said to have visited the school and met with the staff and students in Salajwe to assess the impact of the outbreak of the disease.
According to the reports, traditional and political leaders had advised the ministry to consider visiting some countries that have had similar outbreaks to learn how it was addressed.
The reports added that the village leadership agreed to invite different churches from other villages to pray for the children and the school, but this has not brought the desired results and the videos of the affected students circulated across different social media platforms did send shockwaves throughout the nation.
Mass hysteria is also described as a ‘conversion disorder’ which affects the nervous system and does not show any physical cause of the illness and may appear as a reaction to psychological distress.
KO/GIK/APA